AYUDA – Aid Yielding Utilization Development Assistance

by Crispin Fernandez, MD

The 2025 National Expenditure Program from Secretary Amanah Pangandaman of the Department of Budget and Management | Photo via Presidential Communications Office

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman recently announced at a press conference in Malacañang that “Under NEP (National Expenditure Program) 2025, Php 253.3 billion is allocated for ‘ayuda.” Php 114.1 billion of the budget allocation for aid programs will be set aside for the flagship Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The Sustainable Livelihood Program, also under the DSWD, will get a Php 4.4 billion budget for 2025. The program intends to support those who “graduated” from the 4Ps to sustain their livelihoods. The Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) TUPAD or Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa ating Disadvantaged Workers Program will get Php 14.1 billion next year.

Out of the Php253.3 B set aside for ayuda, Php 18.5B has been allocated for livelihood. The thinking around massive welfare programs (almost $5B) defies rational thinking unless the culture of drawing up lists of patronage-driven voters is the endgame. Since election cycles are now just three years apart, the voter pools created by ‘ayuda’ have become a critical link to election victory.

No financially independent voter will solicit nor depend on the next handout to determine their ballot choices. The longer these ‘ayuda’ programs persist, the more entrenched they become and the more accountable the recipients. It is also misplaced pride among political leaders when they celebrate building more public schools and health and daycare centers in the context of the quality of services offered at those institutions. In the Philippine setting, no Filipino considers public education aspirational or desirable; rather, it is merely the last resort.

“The tired argument that the poor are lazy and do not have financial rudiments has always been invoked, and it is always accompanied by the lack of concerted programs that address those shortcomings. Instead, ayuda by the boatloads. This line of thinking is something one will never employ with their own flesh and blood.”

Is it too controversial to say that the poverty in the Philippines is intentional? However, if purposeful, the budget decisions to emphasize ‘ayuda’ instead of sustainable livelihood projects financed with Php 250B (around $5B) would be easily understood. Why the hesitation to finance livelihood projects? In some localities, how could one expect the financing of tourist boats when the local officials operate almost all the tourist boats in the municipality? Why do farmers and fisherfolk remain marginal farmers and fisherfolk?

What Php 250B can get those fishermen in the West Philippine Sea? More than the ‘bangka.‘ Imagine commercial fishing boats operated by cooperatives among them. At least they would not be so easy to intimidate with water cannons. Picture an organized farmer group owning their own pre and post-harvest facilities – mechanized from start to finish – owning threshing, drying, bagging, storing, and trucking their harvest to market. Php29/kilo rice may be more realistic at that point.

The tired argument that people with low incomes are lazy and do not have financial rudiments has always been invoked, and it is always accompanied by the lack of concerted programs that address those shortcomings. Instead, ayuda by the boatloads. This line of thinking is something one will never employ with their own flesh and blood. That is, providing unlimited financial assistance without requiring a plan for eventual extrication from that state of dependency – often, in fact, many encourage relatives who are financially bereft to go into business. Why this trait does not translate into national livelihood generation programs is a real quandary. Unless we are left with the narrative that poverty is intentional.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Crispin Fernandez advocates for overseas Filipinos, public health, transformative political change, and patriotic economics. He is also a community organizer, leader, and freelance writer.

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